*<drink name="The Bear Tavern" alt="" address="High Street" directions="" phone="" url="www.thebeartavern.co.uk" hours="" price="" lat="" long="">Formerly the Bear Hotel. Its the place to go in Bearwood to watch sport and is fairly cheap compared with The Dog or Plan B over the road. It is open late (til around 2) on the weekends and is also the place to go for a fight, with trouble on the weekend a regular occurance. Used to be a good place for live music and comedy (Frank Skinner, Ed Byrne and members of the Fast Show have performed here) but sadly there doesnt seem to be any entertainment on at present.</drink>

*<drink name="The Bear Tavern" alt="" address="High Street" directions="" phone="" url="www.thebeartavern.co.uk" hours="" price="" lat="" long="">Formerly the Bear Hotel. Its the place to go in Bearwood to watch sport and is fairly cheap compared with The Dog or Plan B over the road. It is open late (til around 2) on the weekends and is also the place to go for a fight, with trouble on the weekend a regular occurance. Used to be a good place for live music and comedy (Frank Skinner, Ed Byrne and members of the Fast Show have performed here) but sadly there doesnt seem to be any entertainment on at present.</drink>

*<drink name="The Abbey" alt="" address="Abbey Road" directions="(Corner of Thimblemill road)" phone="0121 434 6941" url="" hours="" price="" lat="" long="">A local pub for local people. Nicknamed 'The shabby abbey', to say it has a parochial atmosphere is an understatement. Saying that the beer's cheap, if not amazing and the food is a bargain and edible.</drink>

*<drink name="The Abbey" alt="" address="Abbey Road" directions="(Corner of Thimblemill road)" phone="0121 434 6941" url="" hours="" price="" lat="" long="">A local pub for local people. Nicknamed 'The shabby abbey', to say it has a parochial atmosphere is an understatement. Saying that the beer's cheap, if not amazing and the food is a bargain and edible.</drink>

+

*<drink name="Plan B" alt="Trendy Bar" address="113/114 Three Shires Oak Road" directions="" phone="" url="" hours="" price="" lat="" long="">The premises of 'Plan B' have been a bar for a while now. It started life as JD's bar, a seedy hole that had topless bar maids on certain nights of the week. It was then closed for a while until it opened as atticus, a trendy alternative bar selling good european beer and having live music on Sunday evenings. It closed its doors, a casualty of the credit crunch but has now reopened as Plan B. Early reviews aren't favourable.</drink>

Revision as of 15:05, 30 April 2009

Bearwood is an area, originally a tiny hamlet, bordering Sandwell and Birmingham in the West Midlands.

Contents

Get in

By Car

From Birmingham City Centre, Bearwood can be reached by travelling down the Hagley Road (A456), one of the main arterial roads in Birmingham. It can also be reached by travelling through Ladywood and Smethwick, past the city hospital then down City Road.

By Bus

Bearwood is served by a number of 'West Midlands Travel' bus services, many of which terminate and begin at Bearwood Bus Station, just off the Hagley Road. Bearwood can be reached on the numbers 9,19,82,138,139,126, 120, 140 and 258 from Birmingham City Centre. The 126 connects Bearwood to Wolverhampton, the 140 connects it to Dudley, the 139 and 258 continue on to Merry Hill shopping centre and the number 9 terminates in Stourbridge (passing through Quinton, Halesowen and Lye).

Other buses not connecting Bearwood to Birmingham City Centre include the 444, 447, 448 and 450, all tracing various routes that terminate in West Bromwich and the 11 Clockwise and Anticlockwise services, known as 'the Outer Circle' which link the suburbs of Birmingham together, including Harborne, Selly Oak, Bourneville, Kings Heath, Hall Green, Perry Barr and Handsworth. Choice travel also run a limited service from Bearwood Bus Station to Weoley Castle, via Selly Oak and the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital.

By Train

There are no train stations in Bearwood. The nearest train stations are Smethwick Rolfe Street and The Hawthorns, both about a mile and a half away that serve the local area. Birmingham New Street is only around 3-4 miles away and has services to destinations all over the country.

By Plane

The nearest airport is Birmingham International, just over 10 miles away.

See

Do

Warley Woods (Go for a walk), entrances on Barclay Road, Lightwoods Hill and Abbey Road, [1]. Originally the private grounds of Warley Abbey, a stately home owned by the Galton Gunmaking family, Warley woods is now a public park, with a golf course and a small cafe. The annual picnic in the park takes place every July featuring live music.

Lightwoods Park. Another park in Bearwood that can be reached from the woods by crossing Lightwoods Hill. A fairly average park with a bandstand and a playground built over 15 years ago by Anneka Rice and her television program. It also houses an old stately home, Lightwoods House (not open to the public) along with 'Shakespeare's Garden', a walled Victorian garden that has seen better days.

Buy

Eat

Teknaf Cuisine, 622 Bearwood Road (Hagley Road end of the High Street), ☎0121 420 4499. One of the better balti houses in Bearwood, with a more modern take on Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine£10-£20.

Franzl's (Austrian Cuisine), Milcote Road, [2]. An Austrian Restaurant, nestled on a residential street in Bearwood. Expensive but well regarded£20-£30.

Azzari too, 204 Lightwoods Road ((on the corner of three shires oak road, just up from the Bear Tavern)), ☎0121 429 6621, [3]. A rather expensive contempory restaurant, which fuses continental food with Carribean food. £25-£30.

The Kings Head (Gastro Pub), Hagley Road, ☎0121 277 4130, [4]. Previously the legendary drug superstore 'Quantum', was closed for a while and has been extensively refurbished to become an upmarket pub serving restaurant style food. Good food but there can be long waits.£20-£30.

Martin's Tandoori (Indian and Bangladeshi Cuisine), 22 Abbey Road, ☎0121 429 8287, [5]. On a par with Teknaf on the high street and better than the other balti houses in Bearwood. Martin's offers a more traditional feel with cosy booths and friendly staff.£10-£20.

Drink

The Dog, Hagley Road (On the corner of Galton Road by Lightwoods Park). One of the Ember Inn chain pubs. Much like any of the other Ember Inns, can get extremely busy on friday and saturday nights, owing to it being the only decent pub in Bearwood now. Now hosts acoustic live music nights on Tuesdays.Per Pint £2.50 -£3.10.

The Bear Tavern, High Street, [6]. Formerly the Bear Hotel. Its the place to go in Bearwood to watch sport and is fairly cheap compared with The Dog or Plan B over the road. It is open late (til around 2) on the weekends and is also the place to go for a fight, with trouble on the weekend a regular occurance. Used to be a good place for live music and comedy (Frank Skinner, Ed Byrne and members of the Fast Show have performed here) but sadly there doesnt seem to be any entertainment on at present.

The Abbey, Abbey Road ((Corner of Thimblemill road)), ☎0121 434 6941. A local pub for local people. Nicknamed 'The shabby abbey', to say it has a parochial atmosphere is an understatement. Saying that the beer's cheap, if not amazing and the food is a bargain and edible.

Plan B (Trendy Bar), 113/114 Three Shires Oak Road. The premises of 'Plan B' have been a bar for a while now. It started life as JD's bar, a seedy hole that had topless bar maids on certain nights of the week. It was then closed for a while until it opened as atticus, a trendy alternative bar selling good european beer and having live music on Sunday evenings. It closed its doors, a casualty of the credit crunch but has now reopened as Plan B. Early reviews aren't favourable.

Sleep

There are a couple of cheap hotels on the High street, at the Smethwick end, but they are more like hostels housing refugees and drug addicts/drunks from what I've seen.

There are many hotels on the Hagley Road between Bearwood and Birmingham of varying expense.